Bitcoin (BTC) infrastructure firm Voltage announced Thursday the launch of Voltage Credit, a revolving line of credit that allows businesses to send payments with instant finality over the Lightning Network while repaying the facility in U.S. dollars from a standard bank account.
The Texas-based company said the product is designed for enterprises seeking to use Bitcoin’s payment rails without holding the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets. It seeks to address a structural gap in corporate finance, according to a statement shared with The Block.
Traditional banks generally do not underwrite loans based on Bitcoin-denominated revenue, while existing crypto lending products typically require businesses to lock up BTC as collateral, potentially creating tax events and exposing treasuries to price volatility, Voltage said. Instead, its product uses revenue-based underwriting to determine and scale credit limits according to a company’s actual transaction volume processed through Voltage’s infrastructure.
“Until now, using Bitcoin for payments meant managing cryptocurrency on your balance sheet,” Voltage CEO Graham Krizek said in the statement. “Voltage Credit eliminates that tradeoff. Send payments instantly over Lightning, denominated in USD or Bitcoin based on what fits your business, and deploy your capital toward growth. That’s what Bitcoin infrastructure should look like for the enterprise.”
Voltage said the facility carries no origination fees and applies a fixed annual percentage rate to outstanding balances.
The launch follows a $1 million Lightning Network transaction on Jan. 28 between Secure Digital Markets and Kraken, powered by Voltage. The payment, disclosed earlier this month, was described as the first publicly reported seven-figure Lightning transfer and settled near-instantly with minimal fees.
Lightning adoption broadens across payments and infrastructure
The Lightning Network is a second-layer protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that enables off-chain transactions through payment channels. Users fund a channel with an onchain Bitcoin transaction and can then route multiple payments instantly within that channel. When the channel closes, transactions are consolidated and settled on the base layer, reducing fees and confirmation times.
In a report last year, digital asset manager Fidelity described the Lightning Network as a “payment scaling layer” for bitcoin that has expanded beyond peer-to-peer transactions to support broader use cases. The firm said more businesses integrated Lightning in 2024 than in prior years and characterized the network as delivering low-cost transaction efficiency within the digital asset ecosystem.
Several major financial platforms have integrated Lightning functionality in recent months. Crypto exchange Coinbase said in April last year that Lightning Network facilitates 15% of its bitcoin transaction volume, while fast-food chain Steak ‘n Shake added $10 million to its bitcoin treasury eight months after rolling out Lightning payments across all U.S. locations, claiming same-store sales rose 15% following the integration.
Financial services firms have also incorporated Lightning rails. SoFi announced in August 2025 that it would use infrastructure from Lightspark to power international money transfers, converting U.S. dollars to bitcoin in real time and routing funds over Lightning before converting them into local currency. Cash App, founded by Jack Dorsey, rolled out Bitcoin Lightning and stablecoin payment features in November last year.
Last week, Lightning Labs released open-source tools enabling AI agents to run Lightning nodes and make payments without identity or API keys. The toolkit includes seven composable skills covering node operations and L402-gated API payments, allowing autonomous systems to transact programmatically.
According to The Block’s data dashboard, the Lightning Network’s total U.S. dollar capacity exceeded $500 million earlier in January before declining to approximately $340 million. Bitcoin capacity reached a peak above 5,700 BTC that month, representing a 55% increase from a low of around 3,730 BTC recorded in August last year.
© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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